Madonna news - May 2009

15 May - Oakenfold to preview new material on tour Paul Oakenfold has described the new material he has recorded with Madonna as "cutting edge sounds combined with classic Madonna". The pair spent a week together in the studio last month producing songs for the Miles Away singer's upcoming greatest hits package. Oakenfold confirmed that the new material will be previewed when he opens for Madonna on the second leg of her Sticky & Sweet world tour, which kicks off in London on July 4.

The DJ will also play at the Wireless Festival before supporting Madonna on European dates in Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Russia and Eastern Europe. His new album Pop Killer is expected to be released in 2010 and features collaborations with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ryan Tedder and Ce-Lo. (source: Digital Spy) ~ It's pure speculation, but keep in mind if Oakenfold previews the new songs as the opening act, it's not exactly likely that Madonna would perform them live in the actual show.

15 May - William Orbit still friends with Madonna
To promote his brand new album 'My Oracle Lives Uptown', William Orbit gave a long interview to UK radio station BBC which turns out quite a career retrospective,
so naturally Madonna is mentioned several times. Orbit talks about the recording sessions of Ray Of Light, how
they became friends with Madonna during the process, and more importantly, he reveals that he sent in a few new tracks for Madonna's latest project (the new greatest hits album, but he did not name it), but Madonna did not use them. He admits that Madonna is into a different kind of dancy sound now, in the vein of Britney's Blackout album (especially 'Piece Of Me') and her own Music by Mirwais (which fits DJ Frank E's electro pop hint), but Orbit himself cannot create sounds like that. He says they are still friends though and "never say never" regarding if he'd ever work with her again, and calls Madonna a very talented musician. He also talks about his work with other artists, like U2 or Blur. You can listen to the interesting interview
here.

14 May - More tickets released for Belgian show For the concert of Madonna on 11 july in Werchter a serious amount of tickets, that were blocked for productional reasons, have been made available for sale. The last reservations that were still open in the system have been removed from the ticket system as well. In total there are about 3.000 tickets back on sale. The Madonna show, taking place Saturday 11 july in Festivalpark in Werchter, was sold out in no time. The new tickets are now on sale via www.goformusic.be. Only payments by credit card are accepted. Maximum 6 per person. (source: De Standaard Online) ~ Please note that all 3.000 tickets are general standing as all the Golden Circle ones have been sold out.

10 May - Something to remember: Do you believe in love?Madonna followed the brilliant Like A Prayer video with
another masterpiece: the video of Express Yourself, which premiered on May 10th, 1989, showcased Madonna at her most powerful. Based on Fritz Lang's 1927 influential silent movie Metropolis, Madonna took on the lower/upper class distinction of the movie,
but turned it into the battle of sexes, with the men being the workers, and only one woman appearing in the video, Madonna herself, in total control.

Sporting a Marlene Dietrich-esque hairdo (she had to dye it back to blond because of filming Dick Tracy), she first appeared in
a gorgeous green dress, but later on during the crotch-grabbing choreography, she wore a suit over her lingerie, mixing masculine and feminine clothing, further blurring the line between genders. Madonna also took the role of the Man Machine from Metropolis as the men started to fight over her, but she only chose to please one of them. The David Fincher directed video was one of the most expensive clips at the time, with a budget of roughly $1 million. It went onto winning Best Direction, Best Art Direction & Best Cinematography awards at the 1989 MTV VMA, where Madonna performed the song with Donna & Niki, being the only live performance of the Like A Prayer era.

The clip is also notable for being Madonna's first ever remix video, as the first version of the video was set to Shep Pettibone's minimalist house/dance remix, that became the basis of live performances and remixes. Interestingly, the commercially available clip on The Immaculate Collection VHS/DVD has a variation of the funky album version set to a slightly shorter version of the video, reasons for this are unknown.

While the single failed to reach the dizzying heights of its predecessor,
it still went to Top 10 in several markets, including #5 in the UK and just missed out the #1 in the US (because of Simply Red and Martika), but still got certified Gold there for shipments of 500,000 copies. Many fans speculate that its success was hindered because the exact same version that was promoted to radio/video was not found on any of the single formats, and there was also no direct incentive to pick up its parent album that featured the relatively unknown Sly & The Family Stone-infused Stephen Bray production. The futuristic Shep Pettibone remix made its way to Madonna's first greatest hits album The Immaculate Collection and served as the B-single for Justify My Love (with the maxi-single containing another variation of the track).

Madonna performed the song on several of her tours, most notably on Blond Ambition
where the massive stage basically came alive from the video, and Madonna used Express Yourself as the energetic opening number, again referencing Metropolis as she appeared in a shiny golden corset, similar to the Man Machine. The Girlie Show saw Madonna descending on a discoball and launching an upbeat, disco remake of the song, referencing the likes of Gloria Gaynor with the simple, but effectively empowering version. More than a decade later, Express Yourself made a comeback in the Madonna world when the Shep Pettibone remix served as the basis of a military-themed performance as a Re-Invention Tour highlight, where Madonna sang over a marching beat and threw down a show-stopping rifle choreography with an all-male dancer cast. Lastly, Express Yourself became the ultimate singalong as Madonna used it in the "request section" of her 2008 Sticky & Sweet Tour on most shows.

09 May - Revolver, the new Madonna single? *rumour* In the past few days, a lot of fuss has been made in the Madonna fan community about a supposed Lil Wayne collaboration. According to reliable member of the Madonna Fanzine board, anna_henstridge, the first single of Madonna's upcoming greatest hits album is going to be 'Revolver', a track originally meant for Lil Wayne. Madonna got a hold of the track and recorded it as a solo song, produced by the officially confirmed DJ Frank E. You can listen to a snippet of the song here, which does not feature Madonna's vocals. Recently, DJ Frank E described the new Madonna sound as "electro pop" on his Twitter.

Another evidence for the Revolver rumour: a rejected concept for the compilation album appeared online by Adam&Co. They say the project evolved in a different direction, but interestingly it has the rumoured title 'Hits' along with holes made by bullets on the package. Coincidence? Supposedly, we're gonna find out soon...

06 May - Lady Gaga humbled by Madonna coming to her show If you think that Lady Gaga has gotten used to being a pop superstar, think again. No one was as surprised as the New York City native herself to see that the Queen of Pop, Madonna, took some time out of her busy schedule to catch the "Poker Face" singer's show at New York's Terminal 5 on Saturday.

"I was very humbled that Madonna came to the show," Gaga told MTV News on Monday. "And I had been hearing all week that she was going to come, and I was like, 'Oh, OK,' and I didn't want to talk about it or tell anyone 'cause I thought it was kind that she would want to come at all."

What made it even more surprising for Gaga was that she didn't think Madonna had any idea who she was, despite her hit songs and performance on "American Idol" earlier this season. But what really pleased the singer was seeing that Madge made her concert a family night. "I was really excited to see that [Madonna's daughter] Lourdes was there, and that made me really happy 'cause during the show I noticed some beautiful spirit of a girl dancing," she recalled. "And I didn't know who it was and I just kept waving to her."

It wasn't until the set was over that she learned that the girl was Madonna's daughter. "Then when the show was over, I said, 'Oh, there's this sweet, young girl up there, and she was dancing her pants off.' And someone said, 'Lourdes had green pants on.' And I was like, 'Oh my God, it was Lourdes and she was dancing.' It really got me going. [Madonna's] a good mom, so it's nice."

Gaga will also be happy to hear that the legendary singer slipped out unnoticed. "I was hoping and praying she would get out safely," she said. "If she got spotted she would have been trampled like the queen she is." (source: MTV.com)

05 May - Madonna blows minds with bunny ears Madonna was back to her attention-grabbing best last night, stepping out for her first red carpet appearance with toyboy lover Jesus Luz at The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute Gala ball. And it wasn't just the arm candy that got tongues wagging. The Queen of Pop brought out her 80s side, taking the evening's dress theme - The Model As Muse: Embodying Fashion' and running with it.

Dressed in a navy blue ruched Louis Vuitton mini dress, thigh-high black boots and the black fingerless gloves of old, Madge completed her ensemble with a teal-coloured hair piece tied around a top knot. The style chameleon's get-up didn't put off beau of the moment though, as 22-year-old toyboy, Jesus Luz, showed up at fashion's most stylish annual bash, looking super suave in a slick black dinner jacket and waited attentively as the flashbulbs went into overdrive for his date. The pair has frequently been spotted out and about in New York in recent weeks but last night was the couple's first outing as a confirmed item and the duo couldn't have cared less about the ensuing gossip. (source: Marie Claire)

02 May - Madonna wraps up greatest hits sessions, reveals upcoming projects *official* Thanx to Guy Oseary's Twitter, fans were informed that Madonna wrapped up the quick studio sessions for the new greatest hits album on April 30th and May 1st, and she can't wait for us to hear the finished product! Madonna herself also gave away some tidbits on her managers's Twitter, that she's currently listening to electro house music, reading books by Chris Cleave & Malcolm Gladwell, and she dismissed the rumours about leaving her children in London while she's on tour. She also thanked all the support by fans for her adoption.

Even more exciting is that she wrote a letter in the brand new ICON magazine, which reveals a lot of info on upcoming Madonna projects:

She's making a couple of new additions for Sticky & Sweet Tour Part 2 - "one or two new songs to be exact!"

Live Nation and Guy Oseary are currently working on negotiations for a tour closer show "somewhere unbelievable", which is meant to be a huge moment.

A new movie project about the Duchess of Windsor, she's just finished the first draft of the screenplay with Truth or Dare director Alek Keshishian.

She confirms the other rumoured collaborator DJ Frank E for the greatest hits. She writes that the compilation is meant to come out "this spring", but Liz Rosenberg in a page devoted to her confirms it's coming in the Fall. (For more on DJ Frank E, check his Myspace or Twitter!)